Two prerequisites for Christian doctrine- Church Foundations- God’s ongoing covenant with Israel- Proportions, understanding 2^nd coming prophecies in light of 1^st coming

Not forcing scripture to fit our framework- the jig saw principle

My Background

I cut my teeth on the writers of the 70’s. Corrie ten Boom really touched my heart and mind by her example and teaching. Her messages on forgiveness were so verdant and timeless. Her belief of the restoration of Israel and God’s future purposes for the Jews deeply impacted me. It encouraged me to accept all the Bible as literally the Word of God.   In fact, that commitment has progressed to the place where I practice and accept no doctrine except that which is both a) clearly modeled in the New Testament and b) clearly taught in the New Testament. Corrie’s family played a critical role in world events. Already in 1844 Grandfather Willem ten Boom was asked by his pastor, “Willem, you know the Scriptures tell us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the blessing of the Jews.” He responded, “Yes, I have always loved God’s ancient people- they gave us our Bible and our Savior.” A prayer group was subsequently started in Haarlem to read Scripture and pray for the Jews. It produced fruit:

1944 (WWII era) Six members of the ten Boom family were arrested for sheltering Jews from the treacherous vile Nazi’s. Only two immediate family members ultimately survived the ordeal. Following her recovery, Corrie ten Boom became a Christian household name as she went on to preach to the world the necessity of forgiveness.

1948- Israel became a nation through a series of miraculous events.

1967- Israel conquers Jerusalem

2017- USA announces plans to move their embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem

 

Two Prerequisites for Christian Doctrine

For Bible-believing Christians, since Jesus fulfilled the law, all doctrines incorporated into our life must have two prerequisites:

1. A clear New Testament teaching (although the context is formed through the Old Testament)
2. A clear New Testament model. Concerning endtimes, Romans 9- 11 outlines the heart of God for the Israelites described by one of their own, Paul. Romans 11

Matthew 5:17 [ The Fulfillment of the Law ]

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

 

Foundations

Foundations are so important- scriptural, theological, historical foundations all serve to blight the structure built on them if they are skewed. The Tower of Pisa famous for the angle of tilt is simply a structure suffering from a faulty foundation. Accurate history gives us a context which to gain insight. The diversion of most churches from the Bible-believing line of churches post 300AD is a development most people are not aware of. The widespread assumption that they bore the Christian torch skews their history. They persecuted born again believers, torturing them, slandering them as cults, and pursuing them to remote lands to kill them, even to the point of pronouncing a crusade against those who protected the born-again believers in the southern regions of France.

Evidence of most other church histories were suppressed as well as the records of the brutal persecution of Bible-believing Christians- of whom thousands were killed and whose writings were burned.

Two of the most enduring departures from Scripture during this period were the professionalization of the clergy and the blurring of the line between pagan and born-again. None of the prevalent reformers corrected that diversion from Scripture, leaving long lasting and devastating effects.

Free online copy posted by “A project Gutenberg Australia eBook” in July 2010.

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks10/1000351h.html

The book may be purchased through Amazon:

Why Israel? The ongoing covenant with Israel:

Genesis 12: 1-2 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

² “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.^[a]
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”

 Genesis 13:14-17  The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. ¹⁵ All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring^[a] forever. ¹⁶ I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. ¹⁷ Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.”

 Romans 9 – 10:4

9 I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— ² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, ⁴ the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. ⁵ Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

⁶ It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. ⁷ Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” ⁸ In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. ⁹ For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁰ Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. ¹¹ Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: ¹² not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” ¹³ Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

¹⁴ What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! ¹⁵ For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

¹⁶ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. ¹⁷ For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸ Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

¹⁹ One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” ²⁰ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” ²¹ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

²² What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? ²³ What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— ²⁴ even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵ As he says in Hosea:

“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”

²⁶ and,

“In the very place where it was said to them,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

²⁷ Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.
²⁸ For the Lord will carry out
his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”

²⁹ It is just as Isaiah said previously:

“Unless the Lord Almighty
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah.”

³⁰ What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; ³¹ but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. ³² Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. ³³ As it is written:

“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

10 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. ² For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. ³ Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. ⁴ Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes….

Romans 10:16-11:32  But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” ¹⁷ Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. ¹⁸ But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did:

“Their voice has gone out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.”

¹⁹ Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says,

“I will make you envious by those who are not a nation;
I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.”

²⁰ And Isaiah boldly says,

“I was found by those who did not seek me;
I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.”

²¹ But concerning Israel he says,

“All day long I have held out my hands
to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

11 I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. ² God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: ³ “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”? ⁴ And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” ⁵ So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. ⁶ And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

⁷ What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened, ⁸ as it is written:

“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that could not see
and ears that could not hear,
to this very day.”

⁹ And David says:

“May their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
¹⁰ May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their backs be bent forever.”

¹¹ Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. ¹² But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!

¹³ I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry ¹⁴ in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. ¹⁵ For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? ¹⁶ If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

¹⁷ If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, ¹⁸ do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹ You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” ²⁰ Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

²² Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. ²³ And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. ²⁴ After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

²⁵ I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, ²⁶ and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written:

“The deliverer will come from Zion;
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
²⁷ And this is my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”

²⁸ As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, ²⁹ for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. ³⁰ Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, ³¹ so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. ³² For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

Proportions: As OT prophecies are to fulfillment of 1^st coming, so Scriptural prophecies are to 2nd coming

We do not disregard the Old Testament, the law is fulfilled, yes, but remaining prophecies are yet to be fully fulfilled.

 The proportion is a mathematical process used to compute an unknown factor when there are three knowns. For instance,

2 : 4 = 4 : x

Verbalized this is

as 2 is to 4, so 4 is to x

This can be computed by multiplying the the two inside numbers and dividing them by the one outside number:

4 X 4 = 16

16 / 2 = 8

therefore:

X = 8

In the case of prophecy concerning end time fulfillment, we have 3 known legs: Prophecies about the 1^st coming of Jesus, fulfillment of prophecies of the 1^st coming, and prophecies of the 2^nd coming. We have one unknown:  the 2^nd coming of Jesus. The resulting calculation would be: As the prophecies of the coming of Jesus 1^st coming were to their fulfillment, so the prophecies of the end times are to their fulfillment.

Quote by Dr. R. Scott Sykes in his blog http://prophecyupdate.blogspot.com/ : “Because prophetic scriptures are found throughout the bible, it is obvious that a comprehensive, systematic approach would be useful, if not necessary, for the understanding of prophecy. Past prophecies have been fulfilled in a literal manner, as confirmed by the dating of these writings and historical records of confirmation. These past prophecies also serve as a model of how to interpret future prophecies. A literal view of prophecy clearly indicates a certain sequence of events will occur within a single generation, concluding with the Tribulation and Second Advent and these events will be obvious. The prophetic signs appear to be present in this generation and we believe these signs are revealed in the news from around the world.”

The prophecies about the birth of Jesus were carefully recorded in the Gospels:

Matthew 2:3-6 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

⁶ “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
from ancient times.”

 

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Matthew 1:22-23  All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Jeremiah 31:15

This is what the Lord says:

“A voice is heard in Ramah,
mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”

Hosea 11:1 “When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.

Matthew 2:13-18   When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”^[c]

¹⁶  When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. ¹⁷ Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

¹⁸ “A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”

The Prophecies came true literally. But it was strategic events that added to the picture. There have also been strategic events in our times that have given additional substance to prophecies of end times.

All Bible references are from:

New International Version (NIV)

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